Springtime Symi

The view from Symi Visitor Accommodation this morning.  The bunting is up for the Dodecanese Day parade on 7 March 2018.

The Kali Strata in winter mode - rain streaked whitewash, moss, weeds, cats and an abandoned office chair.

Or perhaps not so abandoned...  

The first poppy photo of 2018.

No snow on Symi these year but, as usual, plenty of snow on the mountains across the way in Turkey.,

The second poppy photograph of 2018.

Yesterday was clear enough to see the snowy mountain tops. Today was grey and there are pockets of mist trapped in those distant valleys.

Thursday was the first dry sunny day in ages and everyone was out, doing things, including the municipality catching up on roadworks.

Vapour trails over an empty harbour.

A very wet February is behind us and March brings its promise of spring.  There is still lots of wet stuff showing up on the long range forecasts but temperatures are creeping upwards, the days are getting longer and lighter and Easter will soon be upon us. 

The international tourist season used to start in April with couples, families and walking groups coming to spend their Easter/spring break holidays on Symi.  In recent years, with the decline in niche market tourism to places like Symi, April and May are a lot quieter and it is mainly Greeks who come to the island.  June is the new April and the tourist businesses are slower in getting going.  This does mean that if you do opt to visit Symi in April or May, you will have a far more authentic island experience and the pleasure of having Symi to yourself. 

It is a beautiful time to visit as the island is still green and the spring flowers are quite overwhelming.  If you are a keen walker, photographer, writer or just want some time to yourself, there are worse places to be than Symi in April.  Just allow yourself a low stress schedule as you may have to spend a day/night in Rhodes at the beginning and end of your stay due to the vagaries of the ferry schedule. That in itself is no hardship as Rhodes old town is much nicer outside the main tourist season and there is plenty to explore.  Make the coming and going part of the holiday and enjoy the adventure.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Spring, Glorious Symi Spring

The Vigla is the highest point on Symi so all the antennae and beacons are located up there.  If, however, you are in the shadow of the Vigla you may find that your phone picks up a stronger signal from Turkey than from Symi.  In direct line of sight, however, one can actually pick up quite strong 4G signals these days.

I can assure you that this poppy is absolutely real!  I spotted it on a verge next to the football field behind the power station in Pedi.

Best friends.

Lemon blossom

Rogue nasturtiums

The grape vines are waking up.  

You can see why wild clematis is sometimes called Old Man's Beard

Oak leaves unfurling in Lieni

The Pedi valley.

A lonely cloud between Symi and Turkey.

I spotted this atop a chimney that I pass every day and have never noticed before.  There is always something new to see on Symi.

We have been exceptionally lucky with the weather this March.  After that week of solid rain at the beginning of the month it has been sunny and mild and, as you can see, nature is reveling in the ideal growing conditions.  March can be a very stormy month so it is really exceptional to have such a long run of fine weather.

Tomorrow, 25 March, is a double holiday in Greece as it is the anniversary of the start of the Greek War of Independence from the Ottomans and it is also the Feast of the Annunciation.  The flags are up in the harbour and the children are running about, pursued by harassed teachers trying to coral them into groups for marching practice.

It looks as though there may be a break in the weather in the middle of next week with a possibility of rain showers. These, unfortunately, are likely to be of the 'red rain' persuasion, a phenomenon that combines fine dust from North Africa with moisture and turns everything ochre. We shall see!

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Symi Rumours and Gossip

The view from my desk at Symi Visitor Accommodation at 9 this morning.  It was mild enough to have the balcony doors open. The boat was quite late - she is scheduled to come through at 7.30 a.m. but this seldom happens, as the Friday route from Pireus includes stops at many small islands, including Nissyros and Tilos, where it can be difficult for vehicles to disembark and embark.  It only takes a few minutes delay at each port of call to build up a significant delay by the time the boat gets to Symi.  The Friday Blue Star route is particularly arduous as after Symi and Rhodes the boat carries on down to Kastellorizon, the most remote and isolated of the Greek islands and then retraces her steps back to Rhodes, Symi and beyond.

Now that it is the spring equinox and the days are longer and brighter it is time to plant the summer vegetables - basil, aubergines, courgettes, cucumbers, lettuces, tomatoes and various other herbs jockey for space with the hydrangeas and petunias outside the flower shop.

The big boat brings with it hawkers from other islands and there were three trucks parked at the back of the square this morning, all selling the same combination of oranges, potatoes and green cabbages.

The water level is quite low in the harbour at the moment, hence the green fringe of weed visible at the top of the customs house slipway.

Cold but dry and sunny - perfect conditions for drying washing in the back streets of Yialos.  Very few Symiots have either the space or electricity to spare for a tumbler drier and why pay for something that nature will do for free?  

Daisies, daisies everywhere.

As you can see, they don't have much ground to grow in.

Wild flowers pushing up the the concrete of the Lieni carpark.

It is a bright sunny day. The wind is from the north-east and it has been quite chilly lately.  Midday temperatures are around 15 degrees at the moment.  Once again rain is forecast for the early hours of Saturday morning and we may have thundershowers during the day on Saturday.  The different weather forecasting sites disagree on how much we will get and when and we may well have nothing at all as the front may pass to the south of us or,  perhaps, track to the north.  Weather forecasting is not an exact science at this time of the year.

Regular visitors to the island will  notice some changes to supermarkets up in the village and down in the harbour as both Kampos supermarket at the bus stop in Chorio and Hatzipetros down  in the harbour, opposite Symi Flower, are having extensive revamps.  It is heartening to see that some locals have faith in the Greek economy and are optimistic enough to be spending some money on improvements. There is always a frisson of excitement at this time of the year as everyone looks to see what everyone else is doing and what new shops and businesses might be opening up. Rumour has it that the place next to the Sunflower laundry, below our office, which was ChouChi Gold for many years before being a fish pedicure place and then a very short-lived café, is about to become a very posh boutique, an outlet for an Athenian boutique.  They have certainly spent months on the renovations so it will be interesting to see what happens next.  The small boutique downstairs in the Albatross hotel has reopened as an icon shop and is already open for business. There seems to be some mysterious activity going on involving the Symi excursion boat which has suddenly posted a timetable on the old ANES hut at the bus stop.  The schedule is on ANES' letterhead but does not appear on their website and so far only shows some random routes from now to early April. Although the Symi is an old car ferry, it has not been allowed to transport vehicles for many years which is why it has been doing day trips out of Rhodes in recent years but if it starts doing some evening routes to fill in the gaps left by Dodecanese Seaways and Blue Star Ferries it could be very useful indeed.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Easter Countdown

It is a very wet and windy Friday on Symi and it has been raining steadily for hours. This is the view from the office balcony today. I shall have to venture forth into this shortly to catch the bus back up to Chorio.  At least it isn't particularly cold - it is about 17 degrees centigrade.

Luckily there was a break in the rain when it was time for me to walk down to Yialos this morning.  The Blue Star was cancelled due to Force 9 gales in the Aegean.  Instead this big freighter is sheltering in the harbour - a safer option to lying at anchor somewhere in the lee of Rhodes.

Shop doorways, electricity poles and community boards are all ways in which island activities are advertised on Symi.  This weekend there is a children's show on about an unlikely romance between a chicken and a fox. Symiots are good at creating their own amusements - taking the children to a matinee at the cinema is just not an option when the nearest cinema is Rhodes!

The distressed look is easily achieved here - as long as you have the patience to let nature take its course.  I have watched this shutter in Chorio turn from dark blue gloss paint to the interesting effects above over a period of about 15 years.

Those who planted their bulbs in October are now enjoying the sweet scent of freesias.

A Chorio cat complaining about the late appearance of breakfast.

An informal rock garden in Chorio - wild ferns, moss and daisies.  In a few weeks someone will come along and remove the weeds and then whitewash the step fronts so that they look fresh for the summer.

Syringa berries.

Spring in the valonia oaks.

Everywhere one looks, something new is waking up from the winter.

Pedi bay on a clear day earlier this week.  This morning I could not see as far as the entrance of the bay for the rain and low clouds.

A spring storm is rolling across Greece and Turkey at the moment, bringing gale force winds, driving rain, occasional thunderstorms and very occasional patches of brief blinding sunshine.  This kind of turbulent weather can continue until May and only really calms down once continental Europe has warmed up.  The warm air coming from Africa and the cooler air from Europe meet over the Mediterranean, hence the unsettled weather at this time of the year.  Today may be the last significant rain we have until October or, on the other hand, we may have several more downpours before the long summer drought begins.  What we do know is that it is very rare to have rain after 10 May which is why the tourist boats and beach tavernas and many other tourist businesses that depend on good weather for their operation usually regard mid-May as the kicking off point for the season.

Greek Easter is a fortnight away and the shops are starting to get in more Easter items - elaborately decorated candles for the procession to celebrate the Resurrection, packets of colourful Easter egg dye, special offer sacks of flour for the baking marathon ahead and some large beribboned chocolate eggs from ION, a Greek chocolate company.  Greek Easter is more about family celebrations than about commerce and much of what is shared and enjoyed at this time is made by the people themselves, not bought.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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Happy in the Spring Sunshine

Weathered but still smiling, the little sphinx on the rooftop of the Stani patisserie next to the Symi Visitor Accommodation office looks happy in the spring sunshine.

There is a high pressure system over our corner of the Aegean at the moment and the water level in the harbour is quite low - a sharp contrast to the floods and storms of a few weeks ago.  As you can see, the harbour is still quite empty as the excursion boats and most of the water taxis are still out on the hard at the boatyard in Harani.

We may be half-way through Lent but a few Christmas decorations linger on in the residential neighbourhoods.  In the maritime communities model ships are a common theme and this house has a small caique above the main entrance to the property and again over the door to the courtyard. The rigging is picked out with fairy lights.

The stone mason's factory on the Pedi road.  Huge chunks of rock are quarried up on the mountain and then brought down here to be cut and shaped, either for paving or for construction.  You can see big chunks in the background, waiting to be prepared, and pallets of dressed stone paving under the gantry.

Last week it was a broom hanging from an electricity cable in the harbour (it is still there if you are interested). This week it is a blue plastic watering can wedged between some reinforcing rod on a building site in the Pedi valley.

Leaves are unfurling all over the valley.  There are drifts of pale wild cyclamens in the shady places and clumps of wild garlic jostling for space with the first daisies.

An orange tree crowding the courtyard of an old house near the technical high school.  Most of the oranges on Symi are very bitter but this year there has been so much rain that they are almost edible.  Usually the locals make them into glykos by candying rolls of the peel and storing them in syrup as a very sweet dessert or snack.

The monastery dedicated to the Prophet Elijah (Profiti Ilias)  on a rocky outcrop above the Pedi valley.  It is situated on the site of an old temple to Apollo.  Sun gods and fiery chariots - it was easy to reinvent Apollo as Elijah and many churches dedicated to the latter are situated on sites originally dedicated to the former.

Mother and child enjoyed the midday sun near the power station in Pedi.

A sure sign that summer is on its way - the ice cream fridges are back at the kiosks!  Okay, there isn't anything in them yet but it is a declaration of intent! This is the Kampos bus stop in Chorio.

We had some quite violent thunderstorms on Friday afternoon and squally showers on Saturday but Sunday was glorious. The weather should remain dry and sunny for the rest of the week although the weather forecasters do seem to be dithering a bit about whether we might have a shower or two on Wednesday.  Temperatures remain between 10 and 19 degrees centigrade with northerly and north westerly winds.

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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Spring is in the Air!

The view from room 305 at the Hermes Hotel in Mandraki, Rhodes last Sunday.

A rainbow over the Blue Star in Akandia, taken from room 305 at the Hermes in Mandraki.

The goldfish seem to have made it through the winter in this pond in Mandraki.  Those are old stone cannonballs. Rhodes is littered with them and they are dotted all over the town.

Looking up the Kali Strata on Symi, from near the Old Markets boutique hotel.  In a few weeks the step fronts will be whitewashed but there is no point in doing this annual task until the weather dries up a bit as the moss will return.  The Kali Strata is on the shady side of the harbour and gets very little direct sunlight until about May due to the steep hills behind.

A cat snoozing on a reed mat at the bottom of the Kali Strata. The little boutiques and  gift shops are all still closed for the winter and only essential shops are open.

An almond tree in full bloom near Lemonitissa church.

Bunting ready for Saturday's Dodecanese Day parade.  The Dodecanese islands only became part of the modern Greek state in 1947 as after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire they were awarded to Italy and with the end of the Second World War were administered by Britain who then made the arrangements for the official hand over from Italy to Greece.

A neatly painted fishing boat.  In the summer this is where the excursion boats berth at the head of the harbour.

A French owned traditional Turkish boat visiting Yialos earlier this week.  

Occasionally one has surreal moments on this island.  This is not a pointless photograph of a garbage skip by the bus stop.  It is a photograph of a broom, suspended by fishing line, hanging off the power cable above the garbage skip.  There is a story there, I'm sure, but I am afraid I don't know what it is!

Wild cyclamens in Lieni. They have a very delicate perfume.

Free range and proud of it!

It is a blustery, windy day with gusts rattling the windows and banging the shutters.  The Blue Star managed to dock on her way through this morning by virtue of dropping an anchor to hold her steady, much to everyone's relief as it is a holiday weekend.  The harbour is full of excited children, rushing about and practising their marching for the parade tomorrow.  Rain is forecast but it should hold off until the evening so everyone can enjoy the day.  Dodecanese Day and Independence Day are two holidays that always fall within Lent but fasting is lifted on these two occasions so that they can be celebrated with wine and feasting as appropriate.

The days are getting longer and the intervals between rainy days are widening.  In a few more weeks preparations will commence for the season but at the moment it is still too windy to do much out of doors and all the doors and shutters are swollen from one of the wettest winters anyone can remember.

Dodecanese Seaways have announced that they are releasing their ferry schedule for the summer today but when I checked it was still only up to 31 March on their website.

Have a good weekend.

Regards,
Adriana

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